Chapter 34
“Damage to base walls detected,” played in my cockpit in the gentle, robotic, feminine voice.
Over the last three hours, I’d watched from my location guarding the final gate, as my ally numbers slowly counted down in uneven but well-spaced intervals.
The infiltrating unit appeared to be eliminating each target, then hiding for long enough to test the reaction of the remaining men before acting again.
The timing was notably calculated, while there had been no visible indicators from a distance to draw attention to the location of each kill.
Though all of us had a radar tracker with a grounds map, the truly interesting part about these kills was that the infiltrator had pointedly destroyed the control center of the units, and only the central core.
The brilliance of the move was not only the silence and reduced fanfare, but he was actively preserving the tracking devices on the units, which meant they still showed on our radar.
The only way to find out which unit had been damaged was through a check in on the COMMs, which made examining the exact path of the infiltration near impossible.
Clever.
Too clever.
And so specific a strategy that I could easily guess who we were dealing with.
But that luck had clearly reached its end now that he was in the thick of the base, where the numbers weren’t in his favor, and there were far fewer structures to hide behind.
In such large battle units, stealth was always a limited feature, which was why I never understood why my request for cloaking upgrades had been denied in the past. Our visible intimidation factor was one of the greatest weapons in our arsenal, they’d said, but this was one instance where that visibility became a burden.
In theory, such an uneven scenario shouldn’t ever come to pass in the future, but in practice, the reason we were being given this drill at all was because it had happened in the past.
While it was just an assumption, my intuition was increasingly confident that it was Vann in the infiltration unit.
It was entirely possible he was in another server, of course, considering there were always 200-300 servers going at once.
But something about that pointed destruction reminded me entirely too much of a conversation we’d had back in Dr. Dorian’s class.
Elio was confirmed in my registry as an ally already, so while he might think to use such a strategy with these kinds of odds against him, he was obviously off the table.
Breaker was another possibility, purely based on how adeptly the Shinka unit was performing crowd control—Breaker was a mad man in a group, who I would never want to ambush—But considering the way Vann had been positioned from the start of his time at Astaroth by the administration, it would be par for the course to give him such a challenge in a rank up mission.
Curious that they would tailor the entire evaluation to test one, specific soldier.
They’d done that to me. too.
“What’s your visual.” I radioed to Elio as I continued to watch my map.
“Three more units were just eliminated on the West end. No enemy lights are visible, but Unit 03 and Unit 08 are moving toward the commotion, and I’ve seen glimpses of a muddy Shinka in my scope.
I’m guessing the bunny took the time to hide anything that might make him easily detectable from a distance using some environmental camouflage, but his luck ran out once he entered the base.
” He paused before he added. “Smart move with the masking though. I’d always found the number of glowing lights a bit counterintuitive on the Shinkas.
He’s making good progress because of it.
I’m not even seeing a dull sheen flashing here and there from the moonlight.
If I wasn’t directly zooming in on active battles, he’d be a ghost.” The statement held an unusual note of admiration.
“Indeed…” I trailed off as I watched units starting to disappear from the map, now that he was actively fighting and destroying our Ghuls, trackers be damned. “Breaker?”
“Vann,” he definitively corrected me with the name I chose not to say, despite the fact that we were clearly both thinking it. “Breaker is more like a bucking bronco playing dominoes when he fights. It’s been three hours. This kind of patience feels more like a mouse than a bull.”
“Agreed.” I remained in position. I wouldn’t engage before he got to me.
I was guarding the only way to access the reactor core, and I had every intention of being the final stop.
But I didn’t want to take him on three-on-one.
I would rather he make it to me on his own, and we could square off in a fair battle.
“Observing from up here, it’s seriously like watching a phantom setting off bombs.
It’s… impressive.” He spoke idly, while the remaining unit count dropped to eight.
“This shit really gets my blood pumping. It’s going to be tough just sitting here and watching.
If he somehow gets past you, I’ll take the shot. ”
“He won’t.” Firm and definitive. I didn’t need to tell him to stay on standby however.
Elio knew what to do if somehow the infiltrator got through me.
Though he was more of a brawler than a distance fighter, Elio was still an exceptional sniper.
Neither of us reached our positions by neglecting disciplines.
I watched another explosion, now to the East and three kilometers closer. Seven units remained, one of which was me, and one of which was Elio. I hoped he wasn’t taking on too much damage on the way here. I wanted him at his best.